


Auxiliary Bagel

by RoseisaRoseisaRose



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/M, and that's about it I guess!, one attempted kiss, one bandit death, one impromptu breakfast, one lunch invitation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 12:08:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25849303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoseisaRoseisaRose/pseuds/RoseisaRoseisaRose
Summary: Mercedes waits on the back lines to heal her companions. She always comes well-prepared.Written for the Felannie discord drabble challenge; this week's prompt was "Picnics."
Relationships: Sylvain Jose Gautier/Mercedes von Martritz
Comments: 20
Kudos: 60
Collections: Those Who Drabble in the Dark





	Auxiliary Bagel

Mercedes liked the bishop’s uniform quite a lot.

She liked the elegant embroidery with the magical wards and protections sewn into the fabric. She liked the looser fit of the fabric around her shoulders and the tapered fit at her wrists, which made for easier movement when casting spells. She liked the loose, open neckline – not because it had any practical value, but because she rather thought it was pretty, and she liked pretty things as much as anyone else.

But most of all, Mercedes loved the deep, giant pockets in the skirts.

She’d been late for the mission that morning. Byleth didn’t even look surprised as Mercedes ran up just in time to hop on a supply wagon headed out to the edge of the Sealed Forest. It hadn’t been entirely her fault – she’d gotten up on time, even a little bit earlier, because she knew there was a mission that morning. But she’d gotten lost in her prayers, and then one of her boots had buried itself under her bed and it had taken ages to find, and then it was time to leave in five minutes and she was running out the door and she had to run back to lock it. A terrible morning, all in all.

It was a routine mission. Clear some bandits that had been seen lurking around the Sealed Forest, far too close to the monastery for comfort. If there was a demonic beast, team up and take that down, as well. They’d done it before; they could do it again, easily.

Byleth called Mercedes over to a patch of trees and firmly set her amongst the branches.

“Distance magic if you hear me calling, but save it for emergencies,” they told her sternly. “If anyone really needs healing, I’ll send them back to you.”

Mercedes nodded eagerly, and the company was off and into the woods. She could already hear Felix’s sword clanging against an enemy’s.

She settled on a rock and waited for anyone injured to return. After ten minutes of no one returning, she reached into the pockets of her bishop’s robes. Breakfast.

She pulled out a bagel from one pocket and a small hunting dagger from the other. She’d never had occasion to hunt with the small hunting dagger, but Dimitri insisted that all mages needed to arm themselves for extra protection. And it turned out to be very useful for cutting bagels in half.

Mercedes munched happily on half of her bagel in the sunny spot in the shady forest. She wished she’d brought some jam with her, although that would be harder to store in a pocket, she supposed. She wondered why there were no birds singing or rustlings of squirrels in the branches. She was used to better company when she was dining at the back lines of a battle.

The bandit jumped out at her, axe drawn, right as she put together that he was probably the reason why.

Mercedes sighed. This would be easier if she wasn’t holding a dagger in one hand – Dimitri did make things extra complicated with his boyish love of weapons. She stuck the remaining quarter of the bagel in her mouth and threw her hand out in front of her.

White, pulsating light appeared around the bandit before crashing in on him. He gave a cry and Mercedes said a quick prayer for his soul. But although he stumbled back, shaking his head to clear it, he was soon running for her again, an angry glint in his eye.

Mercedes took the bagel out of her mouth and frowned. That didn’t usually happen. She scrambled back from the rock she was balanced on, holding her knife out in what she assumed was the proper form – she’d skipped that lesson, and that really had been because she overslept.

If the bandit had come out of nowhere, Mercedes could hear the hoofbeats behind her from practically a mile away. She gave the bandit one last pitying smile before neatly stepping to the side, and it was impossible to say whether he slammed into Sylvain’s lance or vice versa. Either way, she could continue to use her dagger for slicing baked goods, which was awfully good timing on Sylvain’s part.

“Hello, Sylvain,” she said, beaming up at him. “Do you have an injury? I can patch you right up!”

“Mercedes!” Sylvain exclaimed, dismounting and walking towards her. “Do _I_ have an injury? That guy almost chopped you in half!”

“Mmm, I don’t think there was any danger of that!” Mercedes said thoughtfully. “It’s true he was a bit better at withstanding magic than I was expecting, but you don’t need to worry about me. I know a lot of spells.” She realized Sylvain was staring at her with an awfully strange expression on his face, and she tilted her head, trying to decipher it. It might’ve been horrified; it might have been impressed. “Did you ride back because you were worried about me?” she asked, unable to keep the smile from off her face.

“I mean, I _did_ hear a lot of screaming,” Sylvain admitted, looking away now. He never was able to keep eye contact when he was being sincere. It was a shame, because Mercedes did like his eyes.

“Oh yes,” Mercedes said, closing her eyes and nodding sagely. “That was probably the bandit. I hit him pretty directly.” She looked up and Sylvain was looking at her with that odd expression again. “Still!” she added brightly. “It was very nice of you to come back and check on me. And your timing really was quite dashing.”

“Dashing, eh?” Sylvain said. He was back to being charming now, which wasn’t nearly as endearing as when he was being sincere. He leaned on a nearby tree and looked down at her, smiling beautifully. “I don’t suppose you’d reward such dashing behavior with a kiss, milady?”

Mercedes smiled up at him. “Absolutely not,” she said.

“Ah then,” he said, recovering faster than he used to. “May I escort you back to the others? I don’t much like leaving you on the back lines, in the end.”

Mercedes sighed. It had been a lovely spot for breakfast, but that was before the murder attempt and the dead body were added to the whole atmosphere of the place. Sylvain offered her his arm as he grabbed the reins of his horse. The clattering of lances and swords in the distance was already starting to die down. The battle would probably be over before they got to the front lines.

“I still have half a bagel, if you’d like,” she suggested. “If that’s any reward for dashing behavior.”

“Can I just take you out to lunch when we get back to town?” Sylvain asked. “That doesn’t look like much of a breakfast.”

“I’ll think about it,” Mercedes said cheerfully.

But honestly, with the sun shining through the trees and the birds taking their song back up again and Sylvain once more forgetting how eye contact worked, it wasn’t such a bad breakfast, overall.

**Author's Note:**

> Because . . . it's an auxiliary battle . . . and she's eating a bagel. 
> 
> Don't look at me.
> 
> [ More puns available through my twitter page.](https://twitter.com/Rose3Writes)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Auxiliary Bagel [Podfic]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26637874) by [quoththegayven](https://archiveofourown.org/users/quoththegayven/pseuds/quoththegayven)




End file.
